Is Dez Bryant really overrated?

[100027]

Im a hardcore cowboy fan and watch every snap from every game this year. The thing with Dez Bryant is he is a great athlete but at times under achieves.Earlier in the year he was running the wrong routes and not understanding the hot routes that Romo was calling. They finally got him on the right page lately and I am proud that he is doing better, but still think he can improve alot to become a more polish reciever. I seems that if its a 3rd and long with the game on the line Romo has more confindence throwing to Witten and Miles Austin then Dez Bryant. I get mad when he is having a 9 catch 200 yard game and romo doesnt throw the ball to him to finish the game, then I look at the flim and see him running half *** routes and not breaking off the ball fast. His WR fundamentals are cheecks

  Dez has a long way to go in the Polish department.

 

[jthagreat]

Im a hardcore cowboy fan and watch every snap from every game this year. The thing with Dez Bryant is he is a great athlete but at times under achieves.Earlier in the year he was running the wrong routes and not understanding the hot routes that Romo was calling. They finally got him on the right page lately and I am proud that he is doing better, but still think he can improve alot to become a more polish reciever. I seems that if its a 3rd and long with the game on the line Romo has more confindence throwing to Witten and Miles Austin then Dez Bryant. I get mad when he is having a 9 catch 200 yard game and romo doesnt throw the ball to him to finish the game, then I look at the flim and see him running half *** routes and not breaking off the ball fast. His WR fundamentals are cheecks

did you come to this conclusion on your own, or did you let the broadcasters create your opinion?

 

[mmg]

Dez had John Kitna throwing to him in 2010. Dez was the third WR in 2010 and didn't move into the #2 spot until after we got rid of Roy. Megatron has always at least been the #2 receiver on his team. So yeah, that makes a significant difference. Not playing football for two years, missing training camp, breaking your leg mid season, and then not having an off season following that season ending injury due to the lockout is also a big deal. But whatever, we'll just negate all that. Dez still has better #s in his first 3 years. Period point blank.
And before you jump down my throat, no one believes Dez is better than Andre, Calvin or Fitz. But I'm pointing out how NT lets their hatred for Cowboys blind their judgment. The guy who is supposedly overrated has better stats in 3 years than many of the WR's this very forum puts on a pedestal.
And for the record, first 39 games --
Michael Irvin: 151 catches for 2,606 yards and 18 TDs.
Dez Bryant: 179 catches for 2,467 yards and 23 TDs.

You can't compare Dez and #88 they played in 2 different eras.

Romo thru Dezs first 3 seasons has thrown for over 10,000 yards and 60+ TDs

Irvin had 2 trash QBs his rookie year and a rookie Troy Aikman his other 2nd and 3rd who only threw for 5,000 and 22 TDs.

Terrible comparison.

 

[nflowshoe]

did you come to this conclusion on your own, or did you let the broadcasters create your opinion?

At the beginning of the Season Romo threw a couple of INT's directly at the CB's. Chris Carter was saying on his radio show how Dez Bryant wasnt breaking to the ball on curls and slants and was doing a lot of bad habits that was making him hard to throw at. I started noticing it after that. Chris Carter was getting on Dallas wide recievers coaches and saying how Terrell Owens didnt break routes and if Dez stopped it he would be targeted by romo more than T.O was.

 

[mpire]

You can't compare Dez and #88 they played in 2 different eras.
Romo thru Dezs first 3 seasons has thrown for over 10,000 yards and 60+ TDs
Irvin had 2 trash QBs his rookie year and a rookie Troy Aikman his other 2nd and 3rd who only threw for 5,000 and 22 TDs.
Terrible comparison.

You can play the "You cant compare eras" game with just about everyone then. No reason people should talk about Calvin Johnson breaking Rice's record right? Because they played in two different eras.

I love when people also pick and choose when Romo is considered a bad/great QB depending on whether it fits their agenda.

In regards to Dez not reading his hot routes correctly, that's a complete toss up but I'll put the onus on him considering Romo is a veteran. But them not looking at Dez in the third quarter has nothing to do with "sloppy routes." Lets also not forget the man is playing with an injury to his dominant hand.

Doesn't trust him with the game on the line? All of our comebacks last season were Dez making clutch 4th quarter catches. First Foreskins game, it was 3rd down and not much time left, Romo threw a pass to Dez which D.Hall got abused and also got called for the face mask to set up the game winning field goal. The second Skins game, Romo threw a pass on 3rd down to Dez to put us in field goal position. In the Arizona game, Romo threw a clutch pass to Dez that set us up for the game winning FG before our HC iced our kicker. I could keep going but you get the point.

Romo clearly trusts Dez a lot more than the other WRs. When Romo goes away from Dez its usually due to Garrett calling for plays where Romo's #1 option is a specific receiver not named Dez. Like when he threw the ball to miles 3 times in a row and he dropped all three last week,

Dez still has a ways to go but its amazing that even as "unpolished" as he's looked, he's putting up elite WR's #s this year. Once he really develops, I see him being top 3 for many years to come.

 

[5am6oody72]

^A lot of people ARE saying that Calvin Johnson's record is a little bit misleading due to the proliferation of pass-first offenses and the fact that many of his yards came in "garbage time" though. (Personally, I think Rice's season is more impressive because he had more TD's and was on a winning team, but at the same time CJ was facing double teams all year and still did work so it's still damn impressive).

Anyways, I think the point is valid because if you simply look at the offenses they played in and the production team-wide Romo is much more prolific than Aikman was. Aikman's CAREER HIGH in TD pases was 23, and even taking out his rookie year and his last year his average # of TD passes was barely 15 for a season. He was usually throwing for 32-3300 yds or so as well. Romo usually tops 4000 yds with ease and already has 4685 this year, that's outpacing Aikman's usual production by a factor of 3:2. So really, like MMG said comparing Irvin's first 39 games or whatever, or even stats from his prime, doesn't really prove that much.

That being said, I don't disagree with you that Dez is a supreme talent; I wanted the Skins to draft him very badly (I'm not sure we would have handled his off-field issues well though). I actually thought he would be more dominant from Day 1 than he has been but he seems to be putting it all together finally. No doubt injuries and getting acclimated to the NFL have slowed him down a bit, but he'll likely finish with around 1450 yds and 13+ TD this year which is pretty damn good regardless of era or system.

 

[mmg]

You can play the "You cant compare eras" game with just about everyone then. No reason people should talk about Calvin Johnson breaking Rice's record right? Because they played in two different eras.

i understand your boy dez breaking out is time for celebrations, but if your going to play that game, fine

irvin had less catches for more yards and 5 fewer TDs with a qb who for his first 2 seasons combined thru for a 5K and 22 TDs, half the yards and 1/3 the TDs.


Irvins production is compared to what he had at QB than Dez.

but ok

 

[irishbaz]

Hes not megatron but hes a better receiver than Miles Austin, the cowboys have a shot with a healthy Des Bryant.

 

[mpire]

i understand your boy dez breaking out is time for celebrations, but if your going to play that game, fine
irvin had less catches for more yards and 5 fewer TDs with a qb who for his first 2 seasons combined thru for a 5K and 22 TDs, half the yards and 1/3 the TDs.
Irvins production is compared to what he had at QB than Dez.
but ok

I honestly don't understand what your point is. If you thought I was trying to indicate that Dez >> Irvin then no. What I was indicating, however, is the fact that Dez is 'right where he should be' while this whole forum said he was overrated because they expected him to put up Randy Moss #s his rookie season.

Several other factors with the Irvin scenario though: Dez was suspended his last year of football and played football for the first time in two years after the suspension; Dez broke his leg midway through his rookie season; Dez was considered the #3 WR his rookie season and didn't see the same amount of opportunities that he would have had he been the #2 or #1 like Irvin; Dez had to recover from injuries without an off season due to the lockout and didnt have the luxary Irvin had. We all know Dez isn't too bright so missing football, having lockouts, etc is the worst case scenario for an individual like him.

You can play all types of games/scenarios for any individual when doing ANY comparison. It still doesn't negate the accomplishments.

And I can admit I'm a big fan of Dez so I'll obviously be biased in some cases but as T.O. says "It's a no brainer." Dez has put up stats comparable or BETTER to the greats (Larry Fitz, Calvin Johnson, Andre Johnson) in his first 3 years meaning he's right on track and FAR from overrated as the GM's on NT suggested.

 

[651akathepaul]

The thing with Dez Bryant is he is a great athlete but at times under achieves.Earlier in the year he was running the wrong routes and not understanding the hot routes that Romo was calling. They finally got him on the right page lately and I am proud that he is doing better, but still think he can improve alot

This is it right here. And I point this out because I've been a big supporter of Romo, and not to derail the thread, but the Cowboy's receivers, minus an oft-injured Miles and their TE, struggled to be on the same level as Romo and just weren't polished enough receivers. Receivers will rarely ever get the blame for INT's by fans because most fans have real issues with taking things at face value without knowing what's going on behind the scenes. Dez struggled konwing where to be, when to be there, how to read the defense, and he and Romosuffered from it.

Check out the latest Inside the NFL. I think it demonstrates perfectly at how everything is now comeing together for Dez and Romo. Romo was getting extremely hype and yelling at Dez about "you're starting to play some football now kid." To me that translates into.."Yes...Now you get it. Let's take over the league, son."

Sky is the limit for Dez, but now he's finally coming into his own and he is what we tought he was.

 

[nflowshoe]

You can play the "You cant compare eras" game with just about everyone then. No reason people should talk about Calvin Johnson breaking Rice's record right? Because they played in two different eras.
I
In regards to Dez not reading his hot routes correctly, that's a complete toss up but I'll put the onus on him considering Romo is a veteran. But them not looking at Dez in the third quarter has nothing to do with "sloppy routes." Lets also not forget the man is playing with an injury to his dominant hand.
Doesn't trust him with the game on the line? All of our comebacks last season were Dez making clutch 4th quarter catches. First Foreskins game, it was 3rd down and not much time left, Romo threw a pass to Dez which D.Hall got abused and also got called for the face mask to set up the game winning field goal. The second Skins game, Romo threw a pass on 3rd down to Dez to put us in field goal position. In the Arizona game, Romo threw a clutch pass to Dez that set us up for the game winning FG before our HC iced our kicker. I could keep going but you get the point.
Romo clearly trusts Dez a lot more than the other WRs. When Romo goes away from Dez its usually due to Garrett calling for plays where Romo's #1 option is a specific receiver not named Dez. Like when he threw the ball to miles 3 times in a row and he dropped all three last week,
Dez still has a ways to go but its amazing that even as "unpolished" as he's looked, he's putting up elite WR's #s this year. Once he really develops, I see him being top 3 for many years to come.

You make great points, I just hope he can keep it up and come up big when his number is called. He got the talent and the potential I just hope he is mentaly ready. He is gonna have to find those gaps in the ******** zone on Sunday.